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Smart911 and In Case of Emergency Tie-Up to Enhance Life Saving Data In Emergency

TMCnews

TMCnews Featured Article

April 19, 2013

Smart911 and In Case of Emergency Tie-Up to Enhance Life Saving Data In Emergency

By Mandira Srivastava, TMCnet Contributor

To improve the availability of life saving information to emergency first responders, Smart911 and the ICE Standard have entered into a partnership. Now, when a 9-1-1 call is received, Smart911 automatically sends critical information to 9-1-1 dispatchers and first responders. The ICE Standard App, through a Smartphone application and wallet card, provides medical and personal information to on-site response personnel. Integrating of these services will make medical information automatically delivered to dispatcher workstations whenever they make an emergency call to a Smart911 supported Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

Joseph Ekman, CEO and founder of In Case of Emergency Standard, a division of About The Kids Foundation, said in a statement "This partnership ensures critical citizen-provided data will be available at each stage of emergency response. We created the ICE Standard division based on my own experience with having heart surgery. The integration of Smart911 and the ICE Standard App will help others who face special medical conditions or any number of other life threatening issues." The App was based on a research paper titled "In Case of Emergency Standard" that Ekman wrote while attending University of San Francisco.

Smart911 was launched almost three years back and is now available in 29 states and more than 350 municipalities. With Smart911, citizens can create Safety Profiles online, containing details about their household and who should be contacted by 9-1-1 during an emergency.

In the event of a 9-1-1 call, caller’s Safety Profile is displayed to the call-taker and data can be transmitted to onsite teams for a better understanding of a situation and more effective emergency response. Firemen will now know things like the number of people living at a home and the location of bedrooms. EMS can know about specific medical conditions for fast, precise medical treatment. Availability of photos in the profile gives police an advantage by receiving an image in seconds versus hours In the event of a missing child.

The ICE Standard App provides a special feature on a smartphone lock screen which displays a person's updated medical information, emergency/medical contacts, medical insurance information, blood type, name, address and a photo verification of the individual. The color coding feature in the app notifies the severity of medical information.

For example, Red indicates an individual has severe allergies, medical devices, health conditions, or is on medications. Yellow indicates the individual is taking medications and green indicates the user does not have health complications. Using color coding first responders can quickly establish the severity of potential issues with the patient.

"We are broadening the sources of data available through Smart911 by integrating the foremost emergency medical contact information App," said Tom Axbey, CEO of Rave Mobile Safety. "Smart911 and the ICE Standard App, through Smart911Connect, will provide public safety agencies and the citizens they serve a unique way to enhance communications, and ultimately, improve the level of emergency response services throughout a situation. We look forward to this partnership further helping first responders avert tragedy and save lives."